The most experienced designer makes design errors. Although it is common to think that someone who has the right knowledge does not make mistakes, often these failures are the result of some tiredness or carelessness. It is common that being so long aware of a project, you can lose sight of certain details, especially if you do not make any list or are used to working in a disorderly manner.
The important thing is that you can solve them immediately and learn from them. Facing these types of situations can also help you in other situations, for example, if you are evaluating a client’s website for a redesign.
Although there are many common design mistakes that you can make sooner or later in your career, in this article, we focus on those that have a large negative impact on the content of your website.
Selecting a poorly readable font
One of the mistakes that seriously affects the content of a website is the selection of a poorly readable font. Many factors affect the readability of a font, but you must take into account the characteristics of the fonts you are going to choose. It is preferable to opt for a simple font. In these cases, it is common to choose serif or sans serif fonts and set aside handwritten fonts, although, in certain pages, calligraphic fonts are usually used only for titles. In contrast, sans serif font is chosen for body text.
Although sans serif fonts are one of the most common options for body text on web pages, you can also opt for serif fonts. Also, you should check the line spacing of each paragraph, as well as the kerning of the fonts you are going to select. These spacing could affect the readability of your texts, so you should make sure you perform the appropriate tests.
In addition to the font’s characteristics, you should take the contrast between the background color and the font color, the length of the paragraphs, the size of the fonts, the alignment into account. These are all variables that you can modify, so you have some control to optimize the readability of your texts, but you must start by choosing a suitable font.
Not establishing an appropriate hierarchy
In any design, the hierarchy of the elements must be taken into account for a correct reading of the design. Thanks to hierarchy, the user takes a look at the design and can easily distinguish the most important elements.
The hierarchy applies to both typography and purely visual elements, whether images or buttons. Although there are different ways to highlight certain elements, size is usually used. For example, the size of the titles is usually larger than the body text. In this way, it is easier to distinguish titles, subtitles, and body text.
Additionally, applying hierarchy helps you improve the coherence of the site because, thanks to it, you can establish a style guide that you will apply to each element that is part of the design.
Including too much text
Currently, users are accustomed to quickly reviewing a web page simply to verify if it has what they need. Even if they find the information they were looking for, they are unlikely to check the entire website.
For this reason, you must reduce the content of your website. Get used to keeping short paragraphs, whether you’re talking about the benefits of a product or service, telling a brief story about the company, or explaining a process. Check your texts again and analyze if you are short. Particularly if you are offering a product or service, you must make sure to express yourself in a smaller number of words. This conciseness not only improves the understanding of concepts by your users but also keeps them interested. If they do not understand, it is unlikely that they will take more time to read the paragraph again, but will choose to leave the page.
Including images with bad resolutions and dimensions
You should consider that a significant percentage of your visitors make use of devices with a high resolution. In the case of tablets or computers, retina screens are quite common today. For this reason, you should be especially careful with the resolution and dimensions of the photographs you place on your website.
Of course, placing a larger image where colors are appreciated and that do not have areas of pixelated, can cause greater weight in your final file. However, there are solutions for these issues, such as choosing compression tools or deciding to link the image from another site to avoid using resources.
Whatever the solution you decide on, you must make sure to choose images with good resolution that look completely clear on any device and, at the same time, ensure that the loading time of the site is within the established limits.
In conclusion
Since an app and a website contains several elements and resources, it is common that we overlook some detail. Do not be discouraged if you make some of these mistakes in your projects. It is quite normal, especially if you are just starting to design apps and websites. You can use this experience to learn about it. Even experienced developers sometimes make a mistake. Everyone does actually.
It is not necessary to resort to a great redesign for such errors. Although they have a great negative effect on the content, it is only enough to detect them, verify the source of the error, and take certain steps to fix it. The steps to take depend entirely on the type of error you have made, but once detected, it can be solved in a short time.
We hope this article allows you to be more alert to these types of common mistakes so that you can avoid them in time in your next web design projects.